O’Leary gives little away as Cheltenham decisions loom

Tony McCoy has a fine chance of a valedictory success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, according to connections of one of his main rivals. Eddie O'Leary is racing manager to Gigginstown Stud, whose Road To Riches is joint-second in betting on Friday week's race but he spoke on Monday of his admiration for McCoy's mount, Carlingford Lough.

“Road To Riches is a nice horse who goes with a chance,” O’Leary said, “but if you ask me who the right horse is for a Gold Cup, I’d be all over JP’s horse.” Carlingford Lough is owned by JP McManus.

Improved form

At 9-1, Road To Riches is actually a couple of points shorter than Carlingford Lough and beat him when winning the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting. Carlingford Lough trailed by eight lengths that day, but O’Leary said: “He needed the Lexus, that was his first run since April.”

While Road To Riches was saved for Cheltenham, Carlingford Lough showed improved form to win the Hennessy last month.

Behind O’Leary’s comments there is probably an element of wanting to play down the chances of Gigginstown Stud, an enormous ownership operation he manages for his brother, Michael, the Ryanair chief executive. He has more than 100 entries at next week’s Festival to oversee next week.

Very long week

O’Leary is reluctant to be drawn into a lengthy discussion as to their chances. “We’ll see what gets there,” he said. “It’s a very long week from now to Tuesday and it’s easy enough to enter them. Man plans and God smiles. We’re very pessimistic by nature.”

That pessimism must have seemed well founded at last year’s Festival, during which Gigginstown’s runners were repeatedly turned over until the Friday, when their fortunes changed to the extent of four winners. “All we wanted on Friday morning was to go home. It shows that if you keep knocking hard enough, the door might open some day.

“Having had that experience, we think we might have used up our luck for the time being. We’re expecting to pay our dues this time.”

There is particular fascination about what Gigginstown will do with Don Poli, high in the betting for both the RSA Chase and the National Hunt Chase, in both of which they have other possible runners. “I really don’t know,” O’Leary said when asked about the horse’s likely target. “There’s three or four horses involved, so we’ll see what gets there in one piece. There won’t be a decision until next week.”

He denied that the RSA might be more tempting if Coneygree were taken out of that in favour of the Gold Cup. “We’ll pick the races for them and when we turn up, we’ll worry about everyone else’s.”

Simon Claisse, Cheltenham’s clerk, said he may decide to water the track later this week. While there might be four millimetres of rain by the end of Wednesday, the forecast is dry from that point and Cheltenham is mostly good to soft with soft ground remaining only in patches. Claisse aims to start the Festival on ground “on the slow side of good”. Guardian Service